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Book Notes

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Kitty Kelley's "Nancy Reagan" is still the best-selling book in the United States, but the rate of sale last week plummeted by almost two-thirds compared with the week before. It will still be No. 1 on the hard-cover nonfiction list in The New York Times Book Review on May 5, reflecting sales through April 20, but it is no longer selling several times faster than every other best-selling book.

The falloff is not unexpected, after the buying frenzy that followed the book's publication, by Simon & Schuster and the initial news accounts two weeks ago. In fact, some booksellers said sales also fell last week because they had pretty much sold it out during the first week of sales. This was said to be true at the B. Dalton/ Barnes & Noble chain, where sales "dropped substantially," a spokeswoman said, but largely because many stores in the chain were out of stock. Pictures From the Gulf

Two photographic records of the Persian Gulf war are in production for publication in the next few months.

"Triumph in the Desert," which Random House plans to publish on Memorial Day, May 27, will contain a foreword by Gen. Colin L. Powell, theChairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The foreword will represent General Powell's first written appreciation to those who served in the Persian Gulf.

The book, a photographic record of the war, was conceived by Harold Evans, the publisher of Random House adult-trade books. He arranged for General Powell to write the foreword, and arranged for the main text to be written by Peter David, the international editor of The Economist in London, who supervised his magazine's coverage of the war in the Persian Gulf.

Mr. Evans also assembled much of the art and the production team that has been working on an accelerated schedule. And he chose Ray Cave, a former managing editor of Time magazine, and Pat Ryan, former editor in chief of Life, to select and edit the 200 or so photographs, from photojournalists around the world.

Many suppliers for the $25 hard-cover book have reduced their fees, and Random House to pledge 50 percent of the net proceeds from its sale to the Gulf Crisis Fund of the American Red Cross.

Harry N. Abrams, the art publisher, and the professional photography division of the Eastman Kodak Company will co-publish "In the Eye of Desert Storm," a book with more than 180 color photographs of the gulf war by 25 photographers from Sygma, the international photo agency. The book is to be published in July ($24.95 paperback, $39.95 hard cover) and is to be edited by Eliane Laffont, the president of Sygma.

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The introduction to the book is by C. D. B. Bryan, the author of "Friendly Fire." Mr. Bryan also contributed a short profile of Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf to the "Triumph in the Desert," the Random House book. Will He or Won't He?

General Schwarzkopf himself has apparently not yet made up his mind whether to write a book, or he is not yet willing to say whether he will write one. While publishers and agents say the General could pretty well write his own ticket and while some acknowledge having approached him with offers, they say he has said only that he has not yet made a decision. Books by Booksellers

Most book awards are chosen by writers or librarians, but the $5,000 Abby Award is chosen by booksellers -- specifically, the members of the American Booksellers Association.

Early this year, each member bookstore was asked to nominate five books they enjoyed selling during the previous year, regardless of subject matter or publication date.

"With this award we wish to focus attention on the so-called midlist books of quality, in hopes that they will achieve the recognition they deserve," said Bernard Rather, executive director of the association.

The winner is "The Little Tree," by Forrest Carter, the autobiographical account of its author's boyhood in the 1930's with his Eastern Cherokee Hill country grandparents. Published by Delacorte Press in 1976, three years before the author's death, it was reprinted in trade paperback by the University of New Mexico Press in 1986 and has since sold almost 250,000 copies -- making it one of the biggest selling books in that press's history.

Runners-up for the Abby award were "The Civil War" by Geoffrey Ward with Ric Burns and Ken Burns (Alfred A. Knopf), "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns (Ticknor & Fields and Dell), "The Shell Seekers" by Rosamunde Pilcher (Thomas Dunne/ St. Martin's Press and Dell) and "When I Am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple," edited by Sandra K. Martz ( Papier-Mache Press ). "When I Am an Old Woman," an anthology of stories, poems and photographs about growing old, has sold 150,000 copies since its publication three years ago by Papier-Mache, a small press in Watsonville, Calif.

Correction: April 26, 1991

The Book Notes column on Wednesday misidentified the book that won the Abby Award from the American Booksellers Association this year. It is "The Education of Little Tree" by Forrest Carter, not "The Little Tree."